Category Archives: Perception

I read somewhere that the world looks exactly the same whether the perceiver is coiffed in long hair or shaved to the scalp, whether clad in blue denims or a three-piece suit. I suspect that the creator of that remark was more optimistic than realistic. OR…

Perhaps I added the word, “looks” and changed the entire meaning.

So, what happens to the power of affirmation when changes in perception capture our attention?

A lack of consonance of the cognitive variety will be greater I think, for those who place a high value on rules and opinions than those for whom the question itself has greater attraction.

“Peel yourself an apple” my father would say in response to a “WHY” question as he handed me a pocket knife whose blade now appeared more graceful after 200 or so years of being sharpened on whet stones in the Broom family workshops.

On one such occasion he offered me a whetstone much older than the knife itself.

“Spend an hour” he once told me, “honing this blade and another hour paring the rind in one piece, then study the completed work (the rind, not the apple.) Then eat the leftover trash (the apple, not the rind.)” And then study the peel again.

I followed Father’s advice a few times before finally understanding the lesson. His somewhat Buddhist nature was saying to me ever so quietly that The Truth I sought was in the search itself.

Today, I wore the jacket to my subtly pinstriped DC suit; I wore it over tattered jeans with a dozen or so frayed rips and tears. Both garments gave me great comfort. Each garment was bought at Nordstrom’s San Diego, in 1983. I wore them today with pointy toed shoes discovered on that same shopping trip.

Dieter: I weigh 200 lbs. I am 5’10” and I want to get to down to 160 lbs.

Nutritionist: You are consuming 2000 calories daily. I want you to start eating 1500 calories daily.

Dieter: At 3500 calories a pound it’ll take me 40 weeks to lose the fat.

Nutritionist: Actually, if all you do is diet, much of the weight loss will be muscle.

Dieter: I want to lose weight and I want to do it in half the time. And I don’t want to lose any muscle.

Nutritionist: Great, so let’s add a five-mile jog every morning; that should do it.

Dieter: This is getting too hard. I can’t do what you ask.

Nutritionist: Have you ever successfully reached your desired weight and kept it off for more than a month?

Dieter: No.

Nutritionist: Okay, I have a better method. Do the 1500 calorie diet and exercise for fifteen minutes, four times a week. How does that sound?

Dieter: Great. How long is this for?

Nutritionist: The rest of your life. The 1500 calories is what you should have been eating all along for someone your height and level of activity. You’ve been trying to winby losing. Commit for life and you will become successful. By the way, I can recommend a really great barber. You have very long hair, you could lose a pound with a good haircut; Just tell him to cut everything down to 1 ½ inches.

It is easier to walk To than to run From.
It is easier to draw anew than to erase the errors.
It is easier to achieve sobriety than to stop drinking.
It is easier to smile than to stop complaining.
It is easier to Love than to tolerate
It is easier to become healthy than to lose weight.